Would you buy a turntable? - Page 3

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

I have been into vinyl for some time...since I was a kid. I still buy LP's all the time, and often will buy an LP version of something I already have on SACD or redbook.

There is a magic about the care and personal interaction with the playback device when using a turntable that simply is lost on digital media. My vinyl rig sounds just as good as any of my digital sources, so there need not be a sound quality loss.

I just got the re-mastered Aqualung, and it sounds the best I have ever heard it.

I have a VPI Scout and I use the VPI SDS motor drive system and an Adcom VanDenHul cartridge (for reference).

Mike

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

I think the term "sound quality" needs to be more specific in these discussions, as I think it is arguable that some aspects of the sound are better with vinyl but others are superior with digital. For example, I don't think there's any doubt that music with significant levels of bass in both stereo channels presents severe challenges for vinyl (e.g., The 1812 Overture on the early Telarc CD probably wouldn't play on vinyl). At the same time, some say that vinyl offers better resolution and inner detail -- such as the classic Neil Young argument in which he said he wants music to "wash over him" like water (analog), not ice cubes (digital).

Good to see you back, Mike!

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

I am not going to spend thousands of dollars for a new turntable if I ever need to replace the one I have. However, I am considering buying a USB turntable for transferring my LPs to CD.

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

I believe the sound quality improvement of vinyl will be rendered negligable with modern rock/pop albums, the poor mastering efforts will just sound like "smooth analog shit" now.

Would I buy a turntable? Probably. As of now I have a handful of LPs I bought just for their cover art, I can certainly forsee myself buying a TT to actually listen to them in the future (But its not a priority)

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

I prefer the sound from vinyl...maybe it's because of my age (CD came around when I was in college) but I think vinyl sounds warmer.

I have a fairly large record collection (1,000+) ranging from mono versions of early Beatles and Stones to more recent Pearl Jam, Tool and practically any recent artist I like which will release on vinyl...Many still listened to on an old Gerard turntable circa 1978 through a Sherwood receiver and KLH speakers from 1975 which were my dads when I was a kid. Not as hi-fidelity as the HK HT setup, but I actually like it more.

I still really love albums....large cover art, can actually read the liner notes/lyrics and hunting through bins of vinyl in record shops and garage sales is still a lot of fun.

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

I recently got into vinyl and half the fun is going through bins at record shops and stoop sales - no garages in Brooklyn

I've been picking up stuff from Talking Heads to Jackson Browne and haven't paid more than $3 for anything. And it is fun to just sit and look through liner notes and cover art, really a completely different feeling from CDs.

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

Absolutely! You don't know what you're going to find at garage sales....or stoop sales and it's a lot of fun just flipping thru the bins and boxes. I always laugh at how Bat Out of Hell can be found at nearly every garage sale on Long Island.

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

I went to the Voxtrot concert here in NYC last night and they released their new album on CD as well as vinyl. Bought the record ($10) and was pleasantly surprised to find a little paper inside that had a link and special code to download the entire album in MP3. Anyone know of other artists doing this?

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

When you buy The Black Heart Procession's The Spell LP you get the MP3 code.

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

Yes you should. I also have a Grado Sonata that I was using until I got hold of the Adcom...the Grado's produce a very nice sound.

Mike

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

I'm seriously considering a USB turntable myself; I have hundreds of LPs that will never be released in digital format that I'd like to have in more convenient formats.

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

It's Frampton Comes Alive around Seattle. Seems I cant swing a dead cat without hitting one of those damn albums!

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

I am not proud to say (for Brooklyn's sake) that I came across 3 copies of various Bananarama albums yesterday while garage sale hunting. I did however pick up a copy of Charlie Brown Christmas on vinyl for 50 cents.

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

I've never NOT owned a turntable. I just bought 5 new (old) records on Monday.

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

That is one album I would LOVE to hear on vinyl...what a great collection of music. Easily my album of the year.

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

I have a turntable. I'm not looking to get rid of it, or to get rid of the vinyl, but I stopped using both of them long ago.

One of these days, I need to get around to transferring albums (that I don't already have on CD) onto the computer, and from there to CD-Rs and AACs, but I'm not in a big hurry.

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

technically, you are right - resolution is applicable when discussing a format that breaks up analog sound into pieces. the smaller, and greater number of pieces = the higher the resolution.

what if the sound wasn't broken up in the first place...?


USB turntables - the ones in existence right now are somewhat below par.

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

I still have a decent turntable from the old days and about 100 albums that survived in playable form. Albums sound great for the first 10 times you play them but I don't care what kind of equipment you have or how well you take care of the vinyl (which was a chore btw) the very act of dragging a needle around a vinyl groove is destructive to the sound quality in short order. The only albums that I still have are either collectibles or albums that I recorded to cassette immediately after buying them and only played them again if my cassette failed for some reason.

At first I was disappointed with the sound of CD's but they have improved exponentially since the early days of digital. And anyone who thinks that albums were always great sounding should talk to someone from the recording industry in that era and ask them about what it was like trying to get a good pressing that sounded the way it was supposed to sound. Digital may have lacked a lot in the beginning but today it exceeds the quality of vinyl IMO and that's just regular CD's.

I'm sure vinyl would have improved also if it had remained the mainstream media it once was but it hasn't. I suggest that anyone interested in going back to vinyl listen to a few examples from the 1960's. Yes there were big strides in quality in the 70's but they still lacked the detail and tone quality of today's digital products. And I'm talking about when they were brand new. Try listening to any album that has been played 50 times or more and you'll think the technology must have been popular in the stone age.

BTW I recently upgraded my receiver and now I don't have a phono input. I kept my old receiver just to use as a phono pre-amp. I'll keep it in the attic with my turntable so I can play my vinyl if I ever feel the need again which gets less likely all the time.

Vinyl is almost strictly for scratch artists now IMO. Yes it could sound great when new but it could also sound really bad when new and it almost always sounded really bad after you played your vinyl a few dozen times. I could notice a difference after one dozen times.

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

Wish I could say that about the re-mastered version of Aqualung I bought on CD. It is far inferior to the original CD and the vinyl.

BTW I would have agreed with Neil Young when CD's first came out but that's been a long time ago now. The problems of the early generation CD's are all gone now IMO. The sound is not thin like it used to be. It's just as full as the vinyl of old albums and far more full on newer recordings. For one thing there's no way you can play vinyl with the level of bass a CD can produce because it would skip all over the place. Heck I can make my CD's skip all over the place when I want to with the level of bass it's possible to produce from CD's (I do have a seriously powered system I guess but that kind of bass is common these days if you're willing to look for it). That alone adds a huge degree of advantage for CD's. No vinyl I ever saw could do that because it was so subject to skipping. I did see some systems that would produce the bass if you recorded your vinyl to tape first but of course you're losing substantial sound quality by doing that.

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

I won't recommend it, but if you were going to buy one anyways, you might want to take advantage of J&R's USB Turntable sale

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

I wouldnt do the USB turntables. I'd go with something like the Audio-Technica AT-PL120, some extension RCA cables and a copy of Audacity. It requires a bit more running around getting everything set up, but it's easy and quick to dump records to my hard drive. The PL120 is a great turntable, well worth the extra money above and beyond the ION usb turntables.

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

I'd like to have one to burn off the titles I have that will never be released or that the record companies won't. My prime example is Atlanta Rhythm Section's awesome live double LP.

In my band days, we ran across musicians bands who had their own 45's or LP's done and we would exchange records with them. I have a lot of those from people who never got signed and I never saw again. I'd love to have those on CD and in my ipod.

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

Unless you have a pro audio quality sound card with truly hi-fi analog to digital conversion, you'll probably get noticably better sounding digital audio files from a USB model than even the best analog model ever made going through the minijack line in on your sound card. I use an E-Mu 1212m audio card which allows up to 192/24 recording. I haven't authored any stereo DVD-Audio discs yet but I could if I wanted to.

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

Sounds reasonable. I've tried ripping vinyl a few times using a fairly decent turntable and receiver combination (basic ProJect TT and Marantz 2225) and my the minijack on my laptop, but the results were not impressive by any means. It did give me a way to listen to a few otherwise unobtainable albums in the car, though.

Re: Would you buy a turntable?

The answer to your question sir is yes, yes I would.

and have....

-Nick-